Today we woke in our beautiful 'private bay' (we may have spent the night in someone's driveway... not sure though) well rested from a night free of passing headlights and strong gusts of wind. With blue skies above us we put on our shoes and brushed our teeth then headed back onto Trans-Canada Highway 17. After a few miles we saw advertisements for an ATM and smoked fish. Perfect. So, we pulled over at the Agawa tourist heaven near Pancake Bay. Sadly there were no flapjack stands, or at least that we saw. While stepping out of the car we were greeted by friendly men working the gas pumps, instructing us to head into the craft store for free coffee. Yessiree, they didn't have to tell us twice. So we wandered the isles of the Agawa Gift Shop(free coffee in hand) perusing the moccasins, 17 varieties of maple syrup, preserves, and pretty much any other Canadian souvenirs you can think of plus more. As the advertisements had promised, the cooler of the next shop over was stocked with locally smoked lake trout. We bought a pound and with mouths watering headed back to the car. Before we even started the car back up, Morgan opened up the newspaper wrapped hunk of smoked perfection. It was delicious.
Bellies happy and fingers covered with a nice layer of fish grease(and
we didn't think we could get any smellier... bahaha) we continued down
the road to Batchawana Bay. Batchawana Bay = Betcha-don't-wanna stay
here too long, Aye? Although it is surrounded by nice scenery, it is
also surrounded by beat down buildings which although somewhat
photogenic, are also not too friendly looking. We hopped out of the car
for a few photo opportunities and then were on our way again to where we
are now located. Sault, pronounced Souix for those in the US, Saint Marie.
Sault Saint Marie has a population of 75,000 which, we are pretty sure,
is more than all the towns along the Canadian North Shore we have driven through so far combined. It
feels nice to be back in civilization for a little bit, even though I'm not
looking so civilized with my dirty scraggly hair... man I need a
shower.
So we sit here, in another cozy coffee shop mooching off of their free internet and heat. We are planning to take a look around Sault St. Marie then we'll drive eastward to Sudbury this evening and then to Killarney Provincial Park tomorrow morning.
